I am in Florida now, revisiting my old home turf, where I raised my son, and wrote my five Florida-based mystery novels, including my newest novel, RED TIDE. The weather has been weird, just as it has been weird in Seattle, now my primary residence. Seattle has been experiencing the hottest summer in recent history, unprecedented DROUGHT, and this following a winter with the lowest snowfall on record: only 16% of normal snowpack in the Cascade mountain range last winter.

Meanwhile Florida is under an almost constant threat of flooding, which is occurring in the Tampa Bay area, where I stay, on an almost daily basis. Several rivers in the area have flooded to the point that hundreds of people have had to evacuate their homes, and there is no end in sight.

Back when I first started writing my Tony Lowell Mystery series, beginning in the 1990s, Seattle had the wettest CLIMATE in America, and summer weather in Tampa Bay (or in St. Petersburg, where I lived) was actually quite bearable. Rains came daily, but always in the form of a brief thunder shower in the late afternoon, which occurred pretty much on a daily basis. And what that did was clear out the air, cool things down, and led to a very pleasant evening.

Now here's what's happening in Seattle: mountains are burning. It is the same drought that is ravaging California: temperatures in the 90s, smoggy sun every day, no rain in sight (one brief day of rain last weekend was welcomed with considerable relief—a high contrast to the past—but the heat and sun quickly returned with little rain in sight in the near future).

Meanwhile, in Florida, there have been few sunny days since I arrived, and the weather has been rainy. What is happening here?

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